The DVD Forum, the international DVD standards authority, has approved a 51GB single-sided HD-DVD disc.
This disc uses three layers to store more information that is currently available on the Blu-ray discs, although those, too, can support multi layers to cram more data into one disc. In fact a Blu-ray disc can store 50GB on two layers.
Even though this new disc is most likely months away from being ready for mass production, it may serve as a threat to Blu-ray's main selling point: its superior storage capacity. On the other hand, 200GB Blu-ray discs, which use up to 8 layers, are currently being prototyped. The question then becomes, how much space is too much? In terms of high definition videos, it will soon become redundant, as movies and extra features will only take so much space, but perhaps for simple data storage, the bigger the better.
According to Toshiba, its entire line of HD-DVD players will be able to read these new three layer, 51GB discs, but will require a firmware update to do so.
Be sure to check back for more HD format war news.
Source: ScreenDigest

wow, this shows that is war aint over yet, both both sides
Meh. At this point, it seems like a lost cause really on their end. HD DVD just doesn't have the wide support that Blu-Ray has (game studios, movie studios, and PC manufactuers).
Even so , it looks like blue ray was at least expecting this, if they already have or are working in a 200gb disc ...
i am by no means an expert on this at all, just askin a question in fact but wouldnt three layers increase loading times from disc?
WOW, let's just keep both formats on the shelves for all to enjoy..... Im going with the blu-ray.
Well, whatever. It's not about the layers count, it's about how much a layer can store. They have talked about a multi-layer Blu-ray for years, and Blu-ray with 3 layers is 75 GB, so I don't really see a problem now..
gooooooooo blu-ray disk!
While this may show that this competition will be heated, there is one key aspect to keep in mind. The XBox 360s' still do not have a built-in HD-DVD players in them. Nor, do the games get built into an HD-DVD. If Microsoft is truly going to support HD-DVD, they will have no choice, but to implement an HD-DVD disc for developers to make games with. Add-ons have proven to fail in video game history. Whether it is Sega, Sony or Microsoft, they have all fallen short in one form or another by trying to add-on the consumer, sort of speak.
i think its kind of arbitary already because even if it does bring them alongside blu-ray in terms of capacity, blu-ray already has such a backing in place that they effectively have the drop on HD-DVD anyway. just as -Zaku- was saying.
Would be curious to see how much more they cost to produce, and how easy it is to update the firmware....
Compatibility would also be an issue... It's ok to say Toshiba player can be upgraded, but what about people who own something else.... Can the HD-DVD 360 addon be upgraded as well? What about toshiba laptops with players??? They all have to work, otherwise, many people won't be happy if they buy a movie on a three layer dvd and it doesn't work on their xbox, laptop or whatever else...
im not gonna hang my head on this....i was until you guys said they were prototyping a 200gb disc
So they are admitting that storage is everything. Still Blu-ray has an extra layer of copyright protection that will still keep the movie studios interested.
Firmware update = phail.
psn id: gingo... i personally still tihnk blu ray has on and when sony announce a 100-200 gb disk the blu ray disk will have the same advantage over hd dvd
Blu ray has other advantages such as pushing a higher bitrate (hence the sound quality is always rated higher) but this makes alot of things pointless doesn't it. Without a doubt I have a feeling that they can make triple layer blu rays. But they won't because financially it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for the HD-DVD camp other than them saying see... we can do in three layers what blu ray does in two.
By the time the hd dvd camp actually uses this, I highly doubt their prices on the 50 gigs willl match the 50 gig prices on the BR discs. Which points to where this war is going. Support, superior technology and a lower price point will make things a wrap. It echos's so many issues.
Blu-ray still has the ultimate ability to go with a larger disc size... they've got room to move while HD-DVD is touting this as their major bonus point. Biggy. Blu-ray has some huge support for them. The war won't be over for awhile but I think a winner has been pretty much declared.
Another desperation move. When, oh when will this damn war end. Aren't the results already clear. Blu-Ray will reign supreme in the end, it's just a question of how long and how much more b.s. we have to listen to.
51 GB *TRIPLE LAYER* HD-DVD. Blu-Ray is only Dual-Layer for 50 gigs. Its been confirmed that Quad layer can be made (100GB). Blu-Ray still pwns
Well isn't that a kick in the balls....btw not for a long time are we ever gonna need 200gb
if sony makes a 200 gig disk we wont need the space for right now but in the future we will so blue ray will win for sure. But by the time we will use all that space somone will invent something better then blue ray
so three layers is the limit for HD-DVD, blu-ray has no limit, they can just release a 75 gig one.
well this just show you how slow HD dvd technology. Blu-Ray had 50 GB fom last year and have already gone up to 200GB. Big deal id HD dvd can produce a 50 GB disk they still suck. Blu-Ray has a better layer coating for its disk than HD dvd disks. I keep saying Apple, Dell, Sony, Acer are on the board with others so blu-ray wins. No more talking.
sony just has to lower their BD players.burners and media and they have won the war even if toshiba come with a 100gb single layer disc i think 25gb and 50gb are enough for this gen now just start lowering the price instead of fighting who has the biggest capacity disc since this will only increase the price
you know what customers want sony just do it. :)
Yeah, combo this to the fact that China is making a CH DVD. Basically it's HD DVD with a new propreitary format. All CH players play HD DVD, but not necessarily the other way around.
Hey mods you should make an article on it.http://n4g.com/industrynews/News-66305.aspx
a kick in the balls indeed jb.
blu-ray still should win in the longrun.
this is one bad sign, look at all of the good ones.
Actually BluRay Disc holds now 54gigs of storage...:) so even dual layer BD pwns this one
Alot of people are wondering how in the world a 200GB Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disc could be necessary for a movie or a video game. For a new release movie, it would not seem necessary at first. With MMORPGs and more memory(altogether) needed for more expansion in games, 200GB could very well be necessary when the developers start to truly dig into the capabilities of the PS3. The one aspect where this will seriously come into play sooner rather than later is with the PC. It has been said that more PCs are being made with built-in Blu Ray DVD player capabilities and playback. With this much memory on a disc, the amount of movies to be saved to it are great. In the case of the movie collections of some, they may be able to download all of their movies to one blu-ray disc. It is only a matter of time before Blu-Ray downloads are in a good swing. The PC is actually the immediate key here.
oh wow congrats to toshiba but why have a 51GB HD-DVD for? Movies??? Games i would understand but Movies. They don't have any PC companies supporting them while Blu-Ray have 2 now. While HD-DVD is sticking to fight in the movies industry. Blu-Ray already in movies, games, and pc disturbution so why fight and lose???
dosent matter aslong as they still arnt being used for video games. and when a regular HDdvd of Heroes Season 1 goes for a hundred bucks imagine how much their higher desity disks will cost. No thanks HDdvd I've got my HD format of choice.
Why does HD DVD even try? They are already losing and its just a matter of time. Quit while you still can.
So, if BD get's 3 layer, it will be 75 gig? Well, this can't be so big a threat (200 gigs!!! "Too much?" they probably said the same to 1 gig flash drives), didn't the disc reader in the 360 damage the disc anyway´? If that goes for all HD-DVD players, then BD is defintely still on top!
blu is always better babby huhyeaaa!
all these spaces on cds will be useless at the end of the day. blu ray included.50gb is still ok but 200gb? hmn
blue ray is already at that stage the tife has already turned. i most luagh my Asss off though. if hd dvd's r 5 dollars more then blue ray now. cant wait to see what they r going to cost once that comes in. oshiba u just put i long blade through your own throat on that one.
This is great news!
wow... just wow... i might buy an xbox if this is true
@luis14ftw
Hmmm Xbox dosnt read Hd-dvd except if you buy the add-on but whatever if you buy it or not i dont think developpers will make games with Hd DVD in mind
luis wtf r u talking about its only for movies!!!! dumb ass
ITS CALLED READ.....
LMAO! Oh.. my.. god. Wow, Toshiba suck big time... didnt get it right the first time so now they're at it again - adding an extra 1GB to the Blu-Ray to try and 'take the lead'. Shocking..
omg you guys, i dnt know why it didnt let me post anotherpost after my first one, but i was going to say somethin like this " o wait, the xbox doesent come with HDDVD stock!!!! rotlmao" i hate xbox, i wouldnt never buy one. EVER
No news here, 2 layers of Blu-ray = 50 GBs, so 3 layers = 75 GBs 50% more than the 3 layer HD-DVD. How pathetic can the HD-DVD camp get?????
Why would you even post this garbage????
Who the F cares.
Go Blu
holy sh!t 200GB?
Blu-Ray all the way....
I'm still sticking with my Blu-Ray format.
200GB are you kidding me? A disc that has more storage than a desktop pc is just ridiculous but very cool! Give me the entire LOTR on one disc then my jaw will drop!
HD DVD capacity is interesting but @ tuaamin is really on to something. Checkout this story:
http://n4g.com/industrynews/News-66305.aspx
This is why it is dangerous to pin PS3 success or failure to Bluray. If the worlds most important market - China, is going a derivitive of HD DVD then guys I can't see how Bluray can survivie. This standard has been selected and supported by the Chinnese Government as being the standard to be manufactured and used by the massive Chinnese population. It also means that their players read HD DVD but also a unique Chinnese version, thus bypassing the need to pay for technology royalties.
What does this mean? Very very very cheap HD DVD players and Movies... It also means if a studio wants to tap Asian market & its 1/3 of the worlds population - they must now make movies on the HD-DVD format. I'd suggest - very strongly, that Sony get back to its knitting and focus on games for PS3 - quickly.
Why cant they just give up... I am expecting them to raise a price for this one.
@ The Cleaner:
Dude, why don't you just give up posting crap here??? Yes, China has a lot of people but their purchasing power is still nil. It is still the Communist Party who controls most aspects of their citizens lives. There is a growing class of millionaires but that just leads to concentrated wealth. China has years to go before the major movie studios support that market due to rampant piracy. Yes, HD-DVD might be popular, but it would only be popular with pirated content, something that Sony, Toshiba, M$, Paramount, MGM, etc. detest and want to avoid at all costs. As long as China doesn't crack down on piracy, it will still be an emerging market. In 5-10 years the situation might change, but right now the battleground for the format war is the Western world, and the developed Asian countries.
@ The Cleaner, who is no doubt and hddvd fan boy:
China lives in its own world. They hate Japan. The hatred goes back to before WW2. China doesn't want to be "slaves" to Japanese technology. This is how China thinks. (odd but true)
So they developed their own standard of HD, called CH-DVD. They have done this stuff before with other formats. Nobody on the Blu side really has to worry about this development. Its not exactly a "Win" for hddvd either, the best that could come out is cheaper hddvd players in the future. Some China CE's have already announced future BD players.
China likes being China, and doing things in China.
This has little bearing on the format war.
b)
i think its funny how PS3 fans are all of the sudden very interested in movie formats. Could it be because this is the only thing that the PS3 has shown it can do better? I mean, why aren't we talking about games? First someone needs to actually develop a 50GB game before this conversation is at all relevant.
PSN id: French
First of all, TDK has already developed a prototype 200GB Blu-Ray. It is NOT 8 layer... TDK has developed 33GB per layer discs... this prototype is 6 layers. Thanks to TDK Blu-ray has over twice the storage capacity as HD DVD per layer. To PeeS3rulz... The two largest games on the market right now are Lair and Heavenly Sword, both weighing in at over 25 and 30 GB respectivley. Killzone is said to completely fill a dual-layer 50 GB Blu-ray disc... and we're still in the early years of the PS3 life-cycle. 100+ GB will be necessary in the years ahead!!
PS3 = Home BlueRay player
multiply this per PS3'owners number now and in the near futur. (penetration)
Period, war is over.
@ ebe: This would be true if every PS3 owner bought Blu-ray. However, you must consider that a large number of PS3 owners do not own an HD-TV, and therefore do not own Blu-ray. Also, not everyone with a PS3 and HD-TV buy movies as well. So for the time being, the PS3 has made a large impact, but has not ended the war by a long shot.
I could not agree more peeS3rulz we are getting heaps of Bluray movie news and bugga all games. Its funny and at the same time depressing.